Teenage boy kidnapped in revenge for drugs sting

A teenager was abducted by an armed gang and taken more than 200 miles from his home, police revealed on Monday.

A 'full-scale' operation was carried out by Lothian and Borders Police after Aaron Hunter, 16, was bundled into a 4X4 vehicle by a group of men and driven from Edinburgh to Warrington in Cheshire.

Aaron Hunter was kidnapped from his home in Edinburgh

Aaron was kidnapped from Edinburgh's Clermiston Place on Friday at lunchtime. His kidnappers threatened to kill him by noon on Saturday if their demands were not met.

His parents, Wendy and Ronnie, called in detectives who advised them during telephone negotiations without letting the gangsters know police were now involved.

The gangsters finally released Aaron unhurt at 5pm on Saturday in Warrington in Cheshire and he was able to contact police.

Detectives said they believed criminals from Glasgow abducted Aaron from his home before 'passing him into the hands' of a gang from Liverpool.

He was grabbed as a means of "exacting some form of recourse or retribution" and to "send a message" after a drugs deal - with which the youngster had no connection - went sour.

It is understood that no ransom money was paid to secure his release.

At least two more homes in Edinburgh were placed under police protection for the duration of the incident.

A major police inquiry has been launched to trace the abductors, with Lothian and Borders officers working closely with their colleagues in Strathclyde and Merseyside.

Sources say the abduction was linked to a drug dealer from Edinburgh who bought a consignment of heroin from the Liverpudlians, but passed them £100,000 in counterfeit cash to pay for the drugs.

It is understood gangsters tried to hunt down the Edinburgh dealer, who had gone underground, to recover their losses.

Glasgow gangsters carried out the abduction on behalf of the gang from Liverpool. Local people say the criminals were armed with guns and had threatened residents as they scoured the city.

But when their search for the dealer and his associates proved fruitless, they snatched Aaron, believed to have been a pupil at Craigmount High School, and held him to ransom instead.

One source said: 'This poor laddie had nothing to do with it. He was grabbed because some would-be gangster from Saughton thought he could pass fake notes to some real gangsters in Liverpool.

'They came up looking for this dealer but, of course, he's pulled a fast one and disappeared. He's a wannabe gangster who's going round bumping other dealers and others.

'Aaron was grabbed because he knows him and these boys from Liverpool thought they could force him to settle up.'

Sources say the dealer who passed the fake money travelled down to Liverpool in person in the past week to pick up the supply of heroin. The dealer, who is aged 24 with a significant criminal history, is still in hiding.

Local sources say the man was also the intended target of a recent failed shooting in Edinburgh as part of an on-going feud between drug gangs from north Edinburgh and others based in The Inch who have ties with dealers from the Broomhouse/Saughton area. The two gangs have been locked in battle for around a year. Both sides are already believed to have pistols and shotguns in their arsenal.

Following the teenager's release on Saturday night, rumours circulated that a major drug dealer form the Inch had stepped in to pay off the English gangsters.

But it is understood that money did not exchange hands to secure his freedom.

Police have already interviewed Aaron, who is said to be badly shaken up by his ordeal.

An incident room has been set up a Livingston police station.

Officers are currently studying CCTV footage from across the city in a bid to identify the 4x4 used in the abduction.

A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: 'Police are investigating the abduction of a 16-year-old male that happened in Edinburgh on Friday.

'He was abducted from an address in Clermiston Place some time between 12.30pm and 1.30pm by a group of males who were using a black four-door vehicle.

'A full-scale police operation was launched, and the individual was traced in the Warrington area on Saturday night.

'He has since been returned safe and well to his family.

'We want anyone who was in the area of Clermiston Place at around the time the abduction took place, or who saw the vehicle used by the suspects, to contact police immediately.'

The spokesman added that serious crime in Edinburgh 'remained low'.

A Lothian and Borders Police spokeswoman said the force was working with Merseyside and Strathclyde Police.